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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFederal judge rules that TSA, FBI can detain and arrest you for carrying Arabic flashcards
By Scott Kaufman
A former college student detained at Philadelphia International Airport after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials discovered he was carrying Arabic language flashcards lost his bid to sue the federal agents who detained him.
Nicholas George alleged that the TSA agents violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights when they arrested him as he tried to board a flight from his Philadelphia home to Pomona College in 2009.
According to Chief Judge Theodore McKees ruling, despite the fact that George clearly had the right to carry the flashcards, the TSA agents were at the outer boundary of justifiability in detaining him. In addition to everyday words and phrases like day before yesterday, fat, cheap, and pink, the deck of flashcards also contained and phrases like bomb, terrorist, explosion, and to target.
Judge McKee believes that those words and phrases warranted further investigation, even though George told the officers that he was using the flashcards in order to learn Arabic for a study abroad program in which he would be traveling to Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.
I want to serve my country using my Arabic language, George told CNN. And it just seems crazy to me that for that I was arrested and treated like a criminal.
more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/25/federal-judge-rules-that-tsa-fbi-can-detain-and-arrest-you-for-carrying-arabic-flashcards/
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)you might to re-think what "my country" is really up to.
Vattel
(9,289 posts)Last edited Wed Dec 25, 2013, 10:25 PM - Edit history (1)
but detaining him was a violation of his fourth amendment and due process rights. It seems that only our second amendment rights get taken seriously.
RC
(25,592 posts)Apparently the first half of the Second Amendment was written in invisible ink.
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KoKo
(84,711 posts)we have Branded: "The Land of the FREE and the Home of the BRAVE..
Although we have learned that "The Land of the Free.....is only FREE because it's the HOME OF THE BRAVE who will SUPPORT our FREEDOM...
Just saying. For the 2Cents.
former9thward
(32,080 posts)Never have I seen any with words like bomb, terrorist, explosion, and to target. I think the TSA was correct to detain and investigate.
alp227
(32,052 posts)And how does TSA meet the burden of proof to be suspicious?
former9thward
(32,080 posts)Courts have long held that airports and border agents don't have to meet the same standards. Why would he be hand writing "bomb" and "terrorist", etc. I have been to most of the Arab countries, some several times, and never have I had to use the word "bomb" or "terrorist."
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)of course your lack of understanding makes you believe the opposite.
but that's pretty normal.
former9thward
(32,080 posts)Go ahead do it. Report back to us about "standards".
tblue37
(65,488 posts)or even carried written cards with those words while in the security line at an airport?
I think the security Kabuki theater is absurd, but I also think the kid was an idiot.
I would never say those words, whisper those words, or have them written on cards in English while going through security.
By the way, do most airports actually have TSA people who actually can read those words in Arabic? If not, how did they know what the cards said?